81 stringer 800 hydro shift no reverse

[Hydro Mike]

Hi, My drive just quit going into reverse. I traced it out to be in the lower unit. I pulled it a part and found the shift dog spring broken in little pieces. Replaced the spring and resealed it up. Tried to reinstall it and found it still will not go to reverse. The cables are ok and move free. I have pulled this a part 3 times to see if I missed something. Any help would be great.

 

[Hydro Mike]

I should add, I can get it to engage both gears and neutral by manually moving the shift rack and cylinder. When it does not work is when hooked to the shift cable assembly. If acts like it will not pull far enough to engage. How far of motion in the shift box should there be? Neutral does not seam to be at the neutral mark.

 

[jim tubbe]

Working the very same problem. About to install my spare outdrive today. It too works great when manually pulling on the hydro cylinder by hand when hooked up to an electric drill for power. I have even installed a two handle speed/gear control box between the front seats. I had hoped this would resolve the complicated multi- task problem with the stock control handle. I know my lower drive is correct I just can't get performance out of reverse gear which I need when docking. My stock control handle now is just used for setting the front engine up/down movement.

Maybe we can work this problem together? I will first hook up my boat to muffs and just pull on the two cables by hand to see how the prop is working. Then I will put a water tank under the outdrive for a real water test. Once before when doing this I gunned the engine in forward and water rolled over the tank top

 

[jim tubbe]

I installed my spare outdrive, fired up the engine and worked the two cables by hand from inside the boat. Was able to engage both forward/reverse same way as when it was set up in my shop using an 1/2" electric drill for power. Had so much reverse power that only a muffs test will be done. No need to test in a water tank. Tomorrow I will install the cable forward/reverse box on the engine and work it by hand before connecting it to my custom speed/gear control box next to the driver seat.

I spent a lot of time on setting the cable gear box over the hydro cylinder. I found that any measuring didn't help. I just kept mounting it then testing by pulling each cable through neutral and watching the propeller shaft to judge if I was getting the same of amount of gear engagement when pulling each cable by hand and the lower drive powered by the 1/2" electric drill. This was just finding that sweet spot that makes this lower drive operate correctly.

 

[jim tubbe]

My normal outdrive which I removed yesterday is jammed and is setting in the shop for repairs later. I believe I did not get it in the sweet spot when setting the cable gear box over the hydro cylinder, it worked but only slowed the boat when docking. I wanted a good reverse to save me when docking or any quick course change.

This boat is great for the short periods that I use it, it just seems that when on the lake it would operate differently than in my shop. Very fast in forward gear, great single handed all around boat.

 

[jim tubbe]

Completed the spare outdrive today inside the boat. Found that my cable has the two rings on the end at the shift converter box and does result in it operating backwards. However my stand alone control box at the drivers seat added by me on my boat doesn't care, I just changed lettering making reverse the top spot and forward the lower spot. This let's me use any cable I can find on ebay. This cable was a tad long preventing connecting the two wires inside the shift converter so I trimmed of 1/2" of the rubber off the end giving the two wires enough length to hook up inside. I suspect this will not effect any performance for years to come.

I now have a great reverse while on muffs, plan to launch the boat Monday to really wring it out.

 

[jim tubbe]

Reverse worked great on the lake at first. After several hours it then would not engage fully in reverse. I could tell that the cable length had shortened. This turns out to be the shift box converters fault. The paws adjust the cable going into it and in my case made it to short. I have removed the paws and pinned back the spring there permanently. Next lake launch and my customized binnacle mount twin lever shift and throttle control box will shine, I promise. Now if I can just get the outdrive elevator to go up when asked. Over engineering like this is ok when the boat is brand new but decades of use changes all. An old style choke and throttle cable mounted on the dash would work great for the gears.

 

[jim tubbe]

Finished